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Hmmm ... Apart from mate we'd use ... *thinks* dude? Man? It is very Americanised nowadays. We use 'bloke' too. But 'Mate' is by far the most popular.

As for trains, I am pretty sure there's not one direct to the Scottish Highlands ... or at least not one on a regular basis. You can get one from London's Kings X that takes you up to Glasgow through the GNER East Coast Mainline ... some may terminate at Newcastle or Edinbrugh, so you'll have to transfer to Glasgow and from there find the local regional train station you want to use. The GNER website (www.gnertickets.co.uk) is very useful. Just key in the information.

Note: trains are very unreliable and often get stopped mid-course. So if you want an authentic story, have your character stuck at York/Darlington/Newcastle/Doncaster for an hour in the freezing cold.

The doors are usually automatic. I was an old GNER train the other day that still used the 'stick your hand out the window and pull the lever' technique, but they're a minority. There's lots of different train companies, don't forget, too. I have only mentioned GNER because I know it has trains going straight up the middle of England and into Scotland.

Is there any particular Irish way to say "hello"? Any particular words the Irish are famous for in general?

The accent really does vary. The Northern accent is very strong (for me, anyway), and has a Scottish sort of ring to it. People from around Cork have a sing-song voice, and tend to add 'boy' to the end of a sentence (but pronounce it 'bye' -- as in , 'Throw that ball here, bye!').

Are you planning to set it in/near Cobh? If so, the Cork accent is quite distinct and they have lots of slang. For example, meeting (snogging/kissing -- but only for teenagers). To be odd (Cork) or thick (Midlands mostly, I think) with someone means to be annoyed with somebody, generally without a big reason.

If something is 'class' it's great. If you're a sound person, you're basically good to know (I don't know if this is exclusively Irish, but it's used here a lot, anyway). I find lots of people tend to add 'pure' to lots of things, e.g. 'That one's pure sound, she is'. If you're talking about someone you might say 'your one' (woman) or 'your man' instead of saying someone; it's generally kind of negative, like 'your one at the checkout counter gave me the wrong change'.

For hello, we meet say 'Howaya' or 'How are ya'. Most people don't answer the question, but if they do it's usually something like 'Ah sure, I'm grand/not too bad'. We say 'sure' a lot (or at least people do where I live), but it's softer than the American pronunciation; sort of 'shurr'.

Killinskully is an Irish program set in rural Ireland. It'd give you an idea of the sound, though some accents are exaggerated to make it funnier.

Irish teenagers, especially girls, say like a lot, generally stuck onto the end of a sentence. In Dublin they sound kind of American, in Cork it's more 'What are you at, like?'.

And what about Gaelic? What is the percentage of teens and/or adults that can read/speak Gaelic?

We don't say Gaelic, we say Irish. Like Ellie said, you have to do it in school, but to be honest most people can't speak it very well. If you're setting your fic in a Gaeltacht (Irish speaking) area, there'd be a fair bit of Irish, but other than that people don't speak it much.

Hmmm... I think I'll let the train go to Glasgow. Actually, my character is going to catch a running train, and she has to have a sudden burst of magic with which the door opens and she gets in. Thanks for the info!

And the tip, I am going to get my leads stranded, but a cold place would be perfect! Thank you so much!

Oh, it's very easy to get stranded on the train station in England. My friend is constantly having to take the bus from Manchester to Liverpool because the trains are down, and my Leeds pal had to get the bus from York the other day. It's slightly ridiculous. Touch wood my train is running on time this Friday. Getting the wrong train would be easy enough too, with so many platform changes and faulty tanoys and every train looking the same.

As for magically opening the door ... there is always a significant pause between when the doors automatically shut and the train sets off, so they could be running up and the door could open ... that's perfectly probable.

And I really am wondering when I became the know-it-all on trains *looks around for Gary*

Okay... but no, when my character enters the station ; the train is already leaving. So she runs alongside, and opens the door using magic, holds on and gets in. Hehe, sonds like fun, right? But it's not. My friend always catches running trains (we have open trains here) and I keep warning him about it.

And for going from Glasgow to Edinburgh, is it enough to take a bus? Or is it necessary to catch the local train?